Emergence
by Calai'di
Summary: Sequel to Freefall and Plummet. The next time Gauche crossed paths with V again was in Spartan City. V/Gauche, brief smut.


**Paring:** V/Gauche

**Rating:** M (but it's pretty much just one scene)

**Summary: **Sequel to Freefall and Plummet. The next time Gauche crossed paths with V again was in Spartan City.

* * *

**Emergence**

It was the day after Yuma and his friends had left Spartan City that Gauche crossed paths with _him_ again.

He was out on a mission from Droite to pick up a few of her favorites from a bakery, and was somewhat preoccupied by trying not to attract too much of a crowd, when all of a sudden he looked up to find those long locks of silver hair right at the end of the street in front of him. The man seemed to be looking up at one of the screens celebrating his win in the Championship match, as if he was completely unaware of the fact that he'd vanished without a trace several months ago.

Gauche stopped in his tracks and stared. For a moment, he was convinced he was seeing a ghost. After what he'd been through the other day, why not an actual ghost this time?

Then he realized abruptly that, ghost or not, if he didn't hurry up, that man was likely to vanish into thin air _again_, and he couldn't count on being lucky enough to randomly cross his path a second time. Gauche shook himself free of his stupor and dashed forward.

"V!"

The man tensed, and that curtain of silver hair fluttered as he whirled around. For all that he'd been staring up at the tournament advertisement, in which he was front and center, V seemed equally surprised to see him.

"Gauche…?"

Gauche marched right up to him and jabbed a finger at his chest. "You! Where have you been?"

"I'm sorry?" V said, looking utterly confused.

Gauche scowled at him and leaned in even closer, his finger now jammed hard against V's chest. He didn't know what it was about that confusion that pissed him off, but he found himself ranting before he realized it: "Do you have any idea how much time I wasted looking for you? I waited for hours only to find out you couldn't be bothered to leave out the front door and you were already gone. And no one's seen hide or hair of you or your family since then—not even Kaito and I was sure you'd tell _him_. Where the hell have you been?"

V went on staring at him like he was speaking some foreign language or like he'd been the one who was missing only to suddenly reappear halfway around the world in a random Italian city. Then his brow furrowed and he looked away for a moment. When he lifted his head again, he looked even more confused and maybe something else, though Gauche couldn't begin to guess what.

"You were looking for me?" V asked.

Too late, Gauche realized what had come out of his mouth—things that he'd _thought_ about yelling at V if he ever saw the man again but had never meant to _actually_ yell at him, because it was embarrassing enough that he'd done all that without V actually knowing about it. But now that he'd said it, he decided he might as well take his chances and double down on it, especially since V, annoyingly, sounded like he'd never considered that Gauche thought about him at all.

Gauche opened his mouth to thoroughly disabuse him of _that_ idea—

"Nii-sama? What's going on…?"

—and shut it again to frown over at the two teens approaching them. One was holding a bag with bread sticking out of the top and looked confused but wary; the other was scowling at him like he thought he could light Gauche on fire if he did it long enough. Both were wearing similarly styled clothes to V's, although Gauche only mostly recognized one of them.

V casually pushed Gauche's hand down away from his chest and turned to smile at the newcomers in one smooth movement. "It's all right, I just ran into a friend. Have you finished your shopping?"

The one with the bread looked very doubtful in the moment before he smiled back at V. "For now, but let's stop at a few more places on the way back, okay, nii-sama?"

"All right, but only a couple more places—"

"Are you going to introduce us?" Gauche asked before they could get so involved in their conversation that they forgot about him completely.

V frowned over at him, but only long enough to make it clear he didn't appreciate the interruption. Then he sighed and said, "Yes, I suppose. Gauche, this is my youngest brother, Michael"—he gestured at the boy holding the bag of bread—"and my other brother Thomas—"

"We've met," Thomas snapped, crossing his arms.

"—and I'm sure you both remember him, but this is Gauche. The, um, Starman."

Above them, the advertisement screen proudly announced his name moments later. V turned back to him with a smile that was clearly just holding back laughter, but Gauche found he didn't care all that much. Laughing at him or not, it was the first genuine smile V had ever given him.

"One of Heartland's lackeys," Thomas sneered, utterly destroying the mood.

Gauche had no problem sneering back at him. "Least he wasn't just a kid."

Thomas's face immediately screwed up in outrage, and Michael, who had so far only looked wary but otherwise fairly pleasant, also suddenly seemed scarily cold. V winced and stepped between the three of them, turning his back on Gauche to speak more directly to only his brothers.

"Gauche and I have a few things to talk about, so why don't you two head back first?"

His tone left no room for argument, although both of them tried, with Thomas scowling around V's shoulder more than once. Neither of them seemed willing to try to argue very much, though, and eventually, Michael made the wise choice to relent for both of them.

"All right, nii-sama. We'll see you later," he said, and then began dragging his surly brother off down the street with only a brief glance at Gauche. Thomas seemed to have decided that scowling at Gauche wasn't working and completely ignored him as he passed by, his nose stuck theatrically up in the air. When the two of them were far enough away not to be overheard, they very clearly began discussing something which eventually caused Michael to glare back at them accusingly.

Gauche grumpily crossed his arms and turned away. He didn't like the look of that. But with any luck, he wouldn't have to deal with them again any time soon.

V was silent as he watched his brothers leave until they disappeared around a corner. Then he turned to face Gauche again, his face set and eyes like shards of ice. Gauche slowly, awkwardly, uncrossed his arms, unsure what was coming.

"For the record," V said quietly, "that 'kid' is our father, and your old boss's boss is the reason for it. So I'll thank you not to make any more quips at his expense."

For a long moment, all Gauche could do was stare at him. His _father_?! How the hell had _that_ happened? And it was Dr. Faker's fault? Did Dr. Faker have some kind of weird shrinking ray gun or something? That was like something out of a B-movie! How could something like that really happen?!

Still, he had no doubt that it really had happened. V might laugh about his choice of name as a Pro Duelist, but he wouldn't joke about something like this. He was clearly just as angry about Gauche's offhand remark as his brothers had been. And no matter how Gauche felt about the kid-who-was-actually-not (which still wasn't all that favorably; he wasn't going to forget what that kid did to Droite for a long time), he didn't want V to be angry with him. They already hadn't started off on the best foot; this was an opportunity to get off on a better one, and he didn't want to screw that up.

"I got it. Sorry, I won't do it again." And then in a blatant effort to move on to something else less awkward, he added quickly, "So is it Christopher again, too?"

V closed his eyes, the way he had the first time Gauche had said his name back when he'd started all this, although he had a much gentler look on his face this time when he opened them again. "It's whichever you like. You can also call me Chris, if you want. Everyone else does."

"Heh, a name like that kinda undermines that high-and-mighty attitude of yours, doesn't it?" Gauche said with a grin. He grabbed one of V's hands before he could get too indignant and bowed his head to brush his lips over the back of his knuckles. When he looked up again, V's cheeks were now tinged the slightest bit pink, and Gauche couldn't help but grin again behind the hand he still held against his lips.

"All right then, Chris. How's dinner sound?"

* * *

The walk back to the hotel he was staying at with Droite was mostly uneventful, although it didn't get off to the best start. After about five minutes of walking in awkward silence, Gauche realized he had never made it as far as the bakery and had to turn back around to finish his mission. Thankfully, Chris didn't seem to mind and even walked back with him to where they had run into each other and then down the street a little to the shop.

Once they left the bakery and resumed their journey, they were still mostly walking in silence. Despite telling his brothers they had something to talk about, Chris didn't seem very inclined to actually talk about anything other than an occasional remark about some nice architecture. Gauche had quite a lot he wanted to ask him about, from where he'd disappeared to during the WDC to where he'd been since then to how he'd ended up in Spartan City, but the longer Chris remained silent, the more awkward Gauche felt about bringing any of it up out of the blue.

After all, he'd already brought up some of it. If Chris wasn't going to say anything about what Gauche had already blurted out, then would he really answer any of the other questions he had?

They were maybe a third of the way to the hotel when they passed by a group of kids who immediately flocked around him to rave about his win and ask for autographs. Of course, Gauche wasn't about to disappoint them. He handed his bag of pastries off to Chris and pulled out a marker for autographs.

When he was finally able to pull himself away, he found that Chris had moved off to the side—to stay out of the way, probably—and he was watching the scene with a soft smile. Gauche tried to ignore the way his heart beat wildly as Chris handed the bag of pastries back to him.

"You didn't used to do that," Gauche blurted before he could stop himself.

Chris blinked at him. "Do what?"

"Smile like that. I don't remember you smiling much at all, and it wasn't like that."

Chris furrowed his brow and raised his fingers to his lips. Did he not realize he had been smiling like that?

"I don't remember you being so popular," Chris said eventually, completely side-stepping the topic of how he smiled altogether. "Which reminds me, I meant to congratulate you on your win, Mr. Starman."

Gauche scowled at him. "Some congratulation. You're making fun of my name again."

Chris's lips twitched. "Maybe a little. I won't tease you again; I don't actually dislike it. And I do wish we could have gotten here a little earlier, so we could have watched some of the tournament. I would have liked to have seen you duel."

"Really?" Gauche asked suspiciously. He _wanted_ to be excited about that, but he hadn't gotten the impression that Chris thought much of him when they'd dueled. Pretty much the opposite, in fact. Especially since he would have lost if Yuma hadn't jumped in when he did.

"You have a lot of potential, and I'd like to see how you've improved."

_There_ was that condescending attitude he'd expected. Gauche let out an irritated sort of chuckle, although he didn't find it quite as irritating when he was expecting it.

"Oi, oi, you could give me a little credit. You're talking to the Champion here, you know?" He grinned and looped an arm around Chris's shoulders, making him stumble a step. "Anyway, if you wanted to see it that bad, we can watch a few videos when we get back to the hotel. They filmed the whole thing."

"I don't know if I have that kind of time," Chris said, sounding like there was nothing else he'd rather do. "You could just tell me about it? I'll look up the videos later."

"Doesn't seem like you ever have enough time," Gauche said, but he launched into a spirited retelling of the preliminary round anyway. It's not like he was opposed to bragging about his various wins, especially to a captive audience.

It was weird. The first part of their journey had been so awkward and felt like it had dragged on forever. But once they actually started talking, it was surprisingly easy to talk to Chris and the time seemed to fly by. Maybe it was just that it was a subject they were both passionate about—although Gauche had to admit, he was surprised Chris _was_ so passionate about it. He had only seen one glimpse of that passion during their duel and it had been because of Yuma; otherwise, Chris had seemed like he would have rather been anywhere else.

But maybe whatever had happened that meant he smiled now had also reignited his love of dueling. Gauche wasn't able to cover nearly as much of the tournament as he'd intended, because Chris would comment on his strategy or his opponents and they ended up discussing the other participants' decks and various strategies instead. Or Chris would somehow figure out what strategy he had used in a certain situation before he could tell about it himself. That was…a little frustrating, if he was being honest, because that just made it impossible to impress him even a little bit, but he was enjoying it too much to care.

"That brother of yours, IV—Thomas. He's a Pro, isn't he?" Gauche finally had to ask as they approached the hotel. "Why aren't you a Pro too? You've got to be at least as good as he is."

"It isn't just us; Michael could also go pro if he wanted."

"Yeah, and….?"

"And that isn't what Tron wanted," Chris said impassively. "I'm sure he'd allow it now, but at the time….Besides, Thomas is the one who enjoys being in the spotlight like that. I don't mind it once in a while, but I don't want that kind of attention all the time."

"That's a shame," Gauche said with an overacted sigh. "I bet you could really go far. And you know, I'm still looking for a Tag partner…Droite wouldn't do it with me…"

Chris stared at him for a moment, then abruptly turned his head away and covered his hand with his fist.

"Is that so?" Chris said, sounding amused. "I'm flattered, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline as well. As you said, I never seem to have enough time."

Since this was pretty much what he'd expected, Gauche just gave another over-dramatic sigh and grinned at him. "Oh well, it was worth a shot. But keep it in mind, all right? You can't be too busy to have fun forever."

* * *

They made a quick stop by the hotel room first, so Gauche could let Droite know he was back and drop off her pastries. Of course, that also involved dragging Chris into the room to meet Droite, and even though Gauche was sure they'd get along, he was still relieved that it went pretty well. Whatever animosity Droite might have still had toward Tron (and Gauche didn't know whether she did, just that he would have if he were her) didn't seem to extend to his sons. Or maybe it just didn't extend to Chris, because as it turned out, Droite remembered him too.

Although if he thought about it, that wasn't much of a surprise. Chris and Kaito had been nearly inseparable back then, so of course Droite had noticed him. Gauche didn't particularly like thinking about it, though whether he was jealous of Kaito because of Droite or because of Chris, he couldn't be sure anymore.

Then they left to find a table at the hotel restaurant, where they had just been with Yuma and his friends a few days ago. Droite had raised her eyebrows at them when Gauche had apologized but declared that it would just be the two of them, but she waved them off with a small smile and even called ahead to make sure there was a table available when they got there.

They were lucky enough to get a table that was somewhat secluded but still near the windows, where they could clearly see the newly exposed ruins beyond the city. Chris didn't even seem to notice them, but Gauche spent a minute looking out on them before he sat down.

"We've been continuing my father's research into the Parallel Worlds," Chris said, once they had their food, _finally_ answering the question of why he was there and where he had been. It took Gauche asking him again to get that answer, but at least he didn't seem to be shying away from it.

"All of you?" Gauche asked, surprised. He didn't know a whole lot about Chris's brothers, but neither of them struck him as the sciencey type.

"Well, perhaps Thomas a bit less than the rest of us," Chris admitted with a small smile behind his wine glass. "But Michael has always been very interested in it as well, although he's more interested in the effects they've had on past cultures."

They definitely must not have known about the ruins, then, or Michael would have wanted to stick around to look through them. Gauche was silently glad he hadn't said anything about them before Chris's brothers had left so he could have Chris all to himself for a while.

"We noticed a sudden spike in abnormal energy readings and spatial distortions not too long ago," Chris went on, "that we came to believe were because the Barians were beginning to act on their own. Coming to our world in person and utilizing Sphere Fields in order to duel Yuma directly, that sort of thing. Kaito confirmed that for me not long after we detected the first Sphere Field—"

"Wait," Gauche said, throwing up a hand. "Wait. Are you telling me Kaito's known where you were this whole time?"

"Not this whole time," Chris said slowly. "Just for the past week or so while we've been following Yuma. But we were in contact before that."

"Right, but what you're saying is, Kaito knew I was looking for you, and he knew you were _here_, and he didn't say anything about it before he left with Yuma yesterday."

Chris paused with his glass against his lips, and then slowly set it down on the table. "If it helps you feel better, he didn't say anything about you either when he informed me they'd retrieved another Numbers. He told me Yuma dueled one of the Barians for it, but not much else."

"Yeah, and I was there too!" Gauche exclaimed, pounding his chest with his fist. "That Barian guy brainwashed me and made me duel with him! I was dueling Yuma too! And Droite helped him beat us!"

"You were?" Chris said, suddenly looking twice as interested. "Where was that? Did you notice anything unusual?"

"Those ruins over there," Gauche said with an irritated wave toward the window. Chris immediately turned his head to look, although with the sun setting, the ruins were becoming hard to see. "But that's not what's important here! Kaito knows I was there! Why wouldn't he say anything?"

Chris stared out the window for another few moments and then frowned down at his glass. "…What exactly did Kaito say to you before he left yesterday?"

"Just some dumb thing about what a coincidence it was to run into us here and it was good to see old friends again. He was mostly just talking to Droite, I think, 'cause he wouldn't say anything like that to me."

"Oh. I see." For some reason, Chris's lips twitched as he took his next bite. "Well, I'll pass on your frustration. Anyway, it was his idea for us to come into town today to pick up fresh provisions."

"Was it," Gauche grumbled. "He should've told you to come yesterday."

"Oh, he did, but we were only able to get here this morning. But he did also say we should stick around for a bit, because their next destination is somewhere near Mongolia, so we won't be able to follow them there."

Gauche still wasn't entirely sure why Chris suddenly thought he wanted to know what Kaito had been saying to him while they were secretly communicating with each other and not anyone else, but he _did_ find that last bit very interesting and eagerly latched on to it. "If you need somewhere to stay—"

"We can't," Chris interrupted. "I'd like to, but we'll need the extra time to get to the last two locations, and there's a project Kaito and I—"

Gauche suddenly launched to his feet, sending his chair screeching backward on the floor. Chris paused, and then carefully set down his utensils and looked up at him.

"Gauche?"

"I don't want to hear about Kaito right now," Gauche snapped. Then he grabbed a fistful of Chris's collar and lunged down to kiss him.

Kaito, Kaito, _Kaito_…how did he end up liking someone who was clearly more interested in Kaito _again_ What was so special about _Kaito_? He didn't even dislike Kaito himself all that much anymore, but how could he not feel sick of hearing about him? How could he not be jealous? After finding out that Chris had dropped off the map for everyone except _Kaito_, after inviting him here on what was essentially a _date_ and all he could focus on was _Kaito_—

He'd already known Chris was never going to be as interested in an actual relationship as he was, that their twenty minute fling during the WDC was probably enough for him. That he probably hadn't given Gauche another thought afterward. But that didn't mean it wasn't frustrating to see it for himself, to feel like Chris wasn't looking at him even sitting across from him.

He wasn't sure kissing him would accomplish anything, but maybe it would make it very clear that he was interested in him, because asking him out for dinner apparently hadn't.

Chris froze in his seat. After a moment, he reached up to press his hand against Gauche's chest, and Gauche was sure he was about to be shoved away. Then his hand slid slowly up his chest, pausing a moment to rub his thumb over his throat, and behind his head. Chris's fingers curled in his hair to hold him in place, and he rose out of his chair and tilted his head to deepen the kiss.

As soon as Gauche realized he was _not_ getting shoved back—Chris was, in fact, enthusiastically kissing him back in the middle of a busy restaurant—he made a pleased sound in the back of his throat and pressed even closer. Chris pressed his other hand against his chest—probably to keep him from trying to go too far, but mostly it was just very distracting, as his fingers couldn't seem to stay completely still.

Before it could get _too_ distracting, though, Chris lightly pushed on his chest and leaned a bit backward himself, so he could murmur against his lips.

"Gauche…"

"Hmm?"

"I want to see the ruins."

…

Gauche leaned back a little more to frown at him. "What?"

"The ruins. You said you were there when Yuma retrieved the Numbers. Will you take me there? I want to look around."

…

Gauche pushed him backward by his collar. "_That_'s what you were thinking about?!"

What the hell?! Did he just not know how to read this guy at all? He'd seemed really into it!

"No," Chris said, grabbing onto Gauche's wrist. He lowered his voice so only Gauche could hear him as he went on, "I was thinking about how much I want you to take me back to your room, and the sooner I finish my work, the sooner you can."

Chris was holding his wrist to keep him from going anywhere, Gauche realized abruptly. His mouth felt very dry, all the way down the back of his throat.

"Ah, really? I thought…"

"I've been thinking about it since you said you were looking for me," Chris continued, his deep blue eyes intently fixed on Gauche. "Or do you think I'll let anyone manhandle me and take me to dinner? If Droite hadn't been there, we might not have ever made it as far as the restaurant."

As it turned out, he had absolutely no idea how to read this guy at all. It was a good thing Chris was willing to be so forward and clear up some misunderstandings, or he definitely would have kept making a fool of himself.

But that didn't matter right now. What mattered right now was going to the ruins and back as quickly as possible.

Gauche grinned wildly and swooped in for another kiss. "Are you done eating?" he asked as he pulled away again.

Chris smiled a little. "I could be."

He let go of Gauche's wrist. Gauche let go of his collar and grabbed his hand instead.

* * *

"I should check in with my family first," Chris said once they reached the parking garage. He'd been considering whether it would be worth it the whole way down to the basement, and finally decided that he didn't want to worry them more than he didn't want to field questions about why he wasn't coming back yet.

Gauche shrugged and went on ahead while Chris slowed his steps to have a semblance of privacy as he followed behind him.

"Thomas," he said, lifting his wrist. A holoscreen appeared above his bracelet, and Thomas scowled at him from the other side of it.

"Oi, Chris, what's taking you so long? You can't have had _that_ much to say to that gorilla."

Chris had to make an effort not to scowl a bit himself. Really, Thomas, wasn't this a rather long time to hold a grudge over something you shouldn't have walked in on in the first place?

"As it happens, we have quite a lot to talk about," Chris said, raising his eyebrows slightly. "He is Yuma's ally, and he played a part in retrieving the Numbers. Which is why I'm calling, actually. We have more to talk about than I thought, so I'll be staying here a while longer."

"Like how much longer?" Thomas asked suspiciously.

"Until tomorrow," Chris said. And then waited.

As he expected, Thomas's face immediately screwed up in fury, and he was halfway out of his seat when he sneered, "You expect _me_ to believe you're just going to be _talking_ until _tomorrow_?"

"You can believe what you want. Whether we are or not really isn't your business," Chris said sharply. "Although while we're on the topic, I do believe I said you weren't to breathe a word about it to anyone."

His tone was closer to something he would have used as V than his usual disposition nowadays, and they both knew that only happened when he was feeling particularly peeved. He was also quite sure Thomas knew he had crossed a line, even though he flinched and looked a bit hurt to have that tone directed at him again.

"Look, Michael just wanted to know why you guys were all buddy-buddy all of a sudden," Thomas said with an awkward, humorless laugh and his gaze very firmly somewhere other than the screen. "You've gotta admit, it's kind of suspicious to see you being so friendly with anyone but Kaito, aniki. I didn't even tell him the whole story, just—anyway, it's not like I told _Tron_. I'm not _that_ stupid."

"Hmmm? What's that? My sons are keeping secrets from me?"

Thomas blanched in horror as Tron moved into his space, poking his head around the edge of the screen to look at Chris. Chris, on the other hand, immediately took on the air of the dutiful son who loved his father very much and had absolutely nothing to hide from him whatsoever. Which wouldn't convince Tron in the slightest after what he'd overheard, but Tron would also have some difficulty in effectively calling him out on it from miles away. Besides, maybe he would be intrigued enough that his most loyal son was actually keeping a secret to just watch what would happen from afar.

"Father," he said with a very faint smile. "I was just calling to say I'll be a little later than I thought. I ran into someone from Heartland, and he happened to be there when Yuma retrieved the Numbers, so he's agreed to show me around the ruins so I can gather data."

"Ooh? You must think this will take a lot longer than you thought, or you wouldn't have called."

"Yes, the ruins are extensive and some distance from here. I don't think I'll be back until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Tron repeated, sounding more surprised than was necessary. "Are you sure you don't need any help?"

Oh, so that was the card he was going to play. Chris gave him a reassuring smile. "Thank you, but that won't be necessary. The person I'm with is perfectly capable of assisting me should I need it."

Tron's eye sparkled in a way that made Chris instantly feel wary. "Is that so? My, it's rare to hear you speak so highly of someone, Chris. This person from Heartland, is it someone I know?"

Chris said, very carefully, "No, I don't believe you've met him."

Behind Tron, Thomas mouthed those words to himself with an incredulous look on his face. Tron just smiled and clapped his hands together. "Oh, then you should bring him by! I'm always eager to meet another researcher into the Parallel Worlds!"

Thomas fell into a sudden coughing fit, causing the image to jerk around. Beyond the screen, Chris could see Gauche's boots jerk and spin around toward him. Chris waved his free hand at him—low, where Tron wouldn't see any movement—and nodded to Tron.

"I'll mention it to him," he said. "Now, if you don't mind, father, we really should get going…"

"Of course, of course!" Tron said with a bright smile. "Do be careful, Christopher. Make sure to use proper protection while you're climbing around those ruins."

Thomas, who had only just recovered, fell into another coughing fit. Chris's expression faltered very slightly. He prayed that Tron hadn't noticed it.

"I'll be careful. Good night," he said, and he quickly shut off the feed before Tron could say anything else.

And then he covered his face with his hand and prayed, again, that this was not going to cause him too much trouble in the future. Gauche was, unfortunately, attractive enough to be worth it, but it would be very nice if he could put off finding out how Tron would react to him sleeping with Heartland's former henchman until long after this whole mess with the Barians was taken care of.

When he finally looked up through his fingers, it was to find Gauche staring at him from where waiting next to a motorcycle with his arms crossed. Gauche smirked at him once he looked up and nodded his head toward Chris's bracelet.

"Tomorrow, huh?"

"Do you have a problem with that?" Chris asked, knowing full well he would not. He glanced at the motorcycle again and reached back to start braiding his hair. He could _probably_ get away with leaving it loose, but he wasn't sure he wanted to risk it.

Gauche grinned ever wider. "Did I sound like I had a problem? Here, let me help with that."

He walked over and his fingers brushed over Chris's as he took Chris's hair into his hands. Chris hesitated a moment, but dropped his hands and let Gauche take over. It had been a while since he let anyone handle his hair that wasn't one of his brothers, but that wasn't because he didn't like it, and it was certainly easier for him to let someone else braid it.

"For the record," Gauche said after a moment, "I _don't_ want to meet your dad. Least, not right now."

"I would have been more surprised if you said you did," Chris said. He took a moment to lock down his bracelet so he wouldn't be getting any surprise calls and then closed his eyes to better enjoy the sensation of someone else braiding his hair. "I'll tell him you were too busy, or too shy, or something."

Gauche snorted lightly but didn't say anything else. His fingers moved quickly, crisscrossing behind Chris's more skillfully than he would have expected. It wasn't like he could have practiced much on Droite. Sooner than he would have liked, he felt Gauche's fingers reaching the end. He pulled a hair tie off his wrist and held it back over his shoulder for him to use.

"Now that's nostalgic," Gauche said once he stepped back around to the front. "Last time I saw you with your hair like this, it was a lot shorter. I think I like it better the other way, though."

"Well, I don't usually braid it unless I'm sleeping," Chris said as he started taking off his coat. "But if we're going to be riding a motorcycle, I want it a little more contained."

"I don't remember you caring about that before," Gauche said. His eyes swept over Chris's chest as he pulled one arm out of his coat; Chris steadfastly resisted the urge to drop his coat to the ground and keep going.

"Maybe I would have if the Duel Coasters had a wheel directly underneath where I needed to sit," Chris said dryly. He pulled his coat back on again, now with his braid trapped between it and his back, and fastened it back up.

"Heh, fair enough." Gauche handed him what looked like a bicycle helmet, jerked his head toward the motorcycle, and then climbed on without a helmet at all. Chris eyed both Gauche and the helmet skeptically, but eventually he put the helmet on and sat behind him. Letting him have the only helmet was an attempt at a sweet gesture, he supposed.

Gauche waited until Chris's arms were wrapped firmly around his waist, then he kicked the motorcycle to life and pulled out onto the street.

* * *

Night had fallen completely by the time Gauche rolled to a stop at the edge of the ruins, and Chris found it surprisingly difficult to let go of him to get off the bike. The night air was pleasantly cool and Gauche's back radiated warmth, and both together conspired to make leaning against him the most comfortable place he could imagine being right then. It had actually been tempting to take a nap during the ride.

Gauche didn't seem in any hurry to get up either. Chris sighed and eventually managed to peel himself away before Gauche could intertwine their fingers _too_ firmly.

The moon was still fairly low in the sky, but it was more than bright enough to illuminate the vast crater in the world in front of them and the ruined coliseum at the center of it. Chris paused at the edge between a pair of toppled columns to take a few readings but mostly just to stare at it in awe. Gauche stopped next to him with his arms crossed.

"You said this was a lake until a few days ago?"

"Yeah, 'til that Barian guy busted a few holes in the walls," Gauche said with a scowl. "Flooded the whole area. It was on the news."

"I'm surprised it isn't already crawling with archaeologists." Not that Chris was going to complain about that. Having to explain what they were doing here wasn't something he relished doing. But it was a good thing they had come tonight, not only because the residual energy was undoubtedly rapidly disappearing, but also because these ruins were unlikely to remain empty for much longer.

Chris pulled his braid free of his coat and casually jumped down onto one of the paths that lead down to the coliseum. Gauche jumped down next to him and they began making their way down.

The path was steep but remarkably free of rubble. In fact, the whole structure seemed quite well preserved, given how little the locals seemed to care about preserving it. It wasn't until they reached the coliseum itself and had to make their way inside through a dark tunnel that Chris lamented the lack of a flashlight, and only then because he would have liked to see what might have been written on the walls and not out of any fear of tripping over anything.

When they stepped out into the center of the coliseum, the moon was just peeking over the edge of the structure. Chris picked his way through the rubble littering the arena floor to the circle at the very center, where his bracelet was picking up the strongest energy readings. After a few moments, he dug into his coat and pulled out a tablet to work on instead. His bracelet was fine for leading him here and taking preliminary readings, but it would be much easier to do anything else with something a little bigger.

"Anything I can do?" Gauche asked after a couple minutes. Chris glanced over. Gauche was leaning back against the doorway where they'd come in his his arms crossed, looking extremely bored.

Chris gave him an apologetic look and turned back to his tablet. "Not that I can think of. I apologize for making you wait; I'll try to go quickly."

Gauche grunted, and Chris heard his boots shift on the ground. Chris tuned him out—or tried to—so he could focus.

He sank into what probably looked like a trance from the outside as he slowly walked around the arena gathering data, his gaze fixed firmly on his tablet screen. He only glanced up twice, when he passed by where Gauche was standing—and of course, Gauche was watching him, though at least he was also looking less bored. Around and around he walked, robotically stepping around rubble and over dangerous cracks, until he had finally covered the entire arena floor and he made his way back to the center to take a few more readings of the energy accumulated there.

Clearly, this was where the Numbers had been, before they had dueled for it. But its energy wasn't quite like any of the Numbers he had dealt with before. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to get into the last two sets of ruins, so he didn't have any data from them to compare it to. Perhaps at the next place…

"Almost done?" Gauche asked, startling him out of his trance. He had good timing, though.

"Mm, almost," Chris said, double checking a couple more things. In fact, it was more than "almost"; he could probably start heading back over now—

Something like a wire looped around his wrist. He jerked and glanced down to find a glowing red line leading between his wrist and Gauche's. A very familiar glowing red line. It wasn't something he had ever used himself, but his brothers…and Kaito, of course…

"Didn't think Kaito was the only one to have one of these, did you?" Gauche said with a grin as Chris stared at him with wide eyes.

"I hadn't thought about it," Chris said, though it didn't surprise him at all now that he was. The surprise came from being anchored to him so abruptly. "But why…?"

"I want a rematch," Gauche declared. He tugged the Duel Anchor slightly; the red glow broke away, leaving the thread invisible, but Chris could still clearly feel it wrapped around his wrist. "Just us, no weird rules or gimmicks getting in the way. If you're leaving tomorrow, this is the last chance I'll have, and we've got a pretty good place to do it here, don't you think?"

"I thought you wanted to go back to the hotel," Chris said. His fingers trembled as he tucked his tablet away anyway. It took every ounce of self control not to seem too eager, not to just brazenly declare that he also wanted that, that he would duel Gauche until dawn if that was what he wanted. He hadn't been lying when he'd said he was disappointed he didn't get to see Gauche duel in the tournament, but no matter how much Gauche had praised him earlier, he also didn't think Gauche would want to duel him again. He hadn't exactly been thrilled about it last time.

Of course, he _also_ wanted to go back to the hotel at some point. He also hadn't been lying when he said he'd wanted it from the moment Gauche had let slip how eager he'd been to see him again. Despite what Gauche seemed to think, he hadn't even tried to wipe that brief encounter during the WDC out of his mind, he just hadn't thought it meant anything. It wasn't _supposed_ to mean anything. Finding out that it had, actually, meant something…

But they weren't at the hotel, they were here, and Gauche was demanding a duel, and there was absolutely nothing else Chris could think of wanting more right this minute.

"If you're not leaving 'til tomorrow, we've got plenty of time to go back to the hotel after," Gauche said with a grin.

"Well, I can't exactly decline, can I?" Chris said with a smile of his own. He yanked his wrist backward, causing Gauche to stumble towards him with the sudden jerk of the Duel Anchor.

Gauche beamed at him with the most enthusiastic, elated grin yet and scrambled to get into position. Chris had to look away from him while he also got into position and activated his D-Gazer and Duel Disk. That was…really very cute…

Gauche's enthusiasm waned somewhat as the duel progressed. His deck just did not pair well against Chris's, and his more straightforward style of dueling didn't either. It was inevitable he'd feel some frustration. But it certainly didn't stop him from trying, and he _had_ improved enough to make it interesting. He actually managed to deal some damage this time.

In the end, though, it was Gauche who went flying backward into the ground as his lifepoints ticked down to zero. Chris let his D-Gazer and Duel Disk dissolve away as he walked over, and he felt the wire around his wrist disappear as well.

Gauche was still on the ground when Chris stopped next to him, with an arm slung over his face. "God, your dueling is annoying," he grumbled, somewhat muffled by his sleeve.

"Yes, but it works," Chris said with a faint smirk. He reached his hand down to help Gauche up. "Here."

Gauche peeked out over his arm. With a groan, he leaned up a bit on his elbow and reached up to take Chris's hand.

Then he yanked, and suddenly Chris went stumbling down on top of him.

"I can't feel satisfied by a duel like that," Gauche said, although he was looking so pleased with himself that it was hard to imagine he was upset at all. "What are you going to do to make it up to me?"

Chris very nearly rolled his eyes at his theatrics—and the fact that this _still_ was not Gauche's hotel room—but the feel of those hard muscles under his fingers and thighs was doing wonders toward making this particular scenario extremely appealing.

"Hmm? As the winner, shouldn't I be the one getting the reward?" Chris murmured.

Gauche laughed, and in an instant, had rolled them over so he was the one kneeling over Chris. "You're absolutely right." He caught one of Chris's hands and brought it up to his mouth to nip at the heel of his palm. Chris shuddered and moaned as Gauche's tongue and teeth sent sparks up his arm and down his spine. After a moment of feeling absolutely useless, he grabbed Gauche's coat with his other hand and yanked him down into an actual kiss.

Gauche's grip tightened on his hand briefly, then he let go, as Chris had been hoping. Even better, his fingers immediately got to work on Chris's coat, swiftly undoing the fastenings holding it closed. Chris hummed softly into his mouth; there was no hesitation at all, so clearly he remembered how it worked from last time. How many times had he replayed that encounter in his head for him to remember it that well?

Chris waited until it felt like he was almost done, and then tugged Gauche's coat over his shoulders and then a little more to make it clear he wanted it _off_. Gauche obediently sat back and let his coat slide to the ground. Then he frowned down at Chris and started folding up the coat.

"How far are you planning to go?" Chris asked as Gauche carefully slid the makeshift pillow behind his head. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the gesture—far from it, with the ground as hard and rocky as it was—but he hadn't thought they would be here _that_ long.

Gauche shrugged and leaned down again to kiss Chris's exposed neck. "You don't have anything to, uh…'ease the way', do you?"

Chris snorted very lightly as he tilted his head to the side. "Do you really think I'd be carrying something like that?"

"Not that far, then," Gauche murmured against his neck. "And we'll have to get something on the way back to the hotel."

"Yes," Chris agreed immediately. Gauche paused in kissing his neck, and then chuckled and very swiftly redoubled his efforts to nip at every bit of skin he could. Chris tried to keep his breathing even and started skimming his fingers over Gauche's chest and shoulders, absolutely refusing to feel embarrassed by seeming that eager. He'd decided hours ago that he wanted to sleep with this man; what point was there in being embarrassed about it now?

Although they would probably need to discuss who, exactly, was going to be on the receiving end here, because Gauche undoubtedly thought it was going to be Chris.

…If he was being honest, Chris didn't mind the idea all that much. But he was also quite fond of the image he had been presented earlier of Gauche on his back…

"Then we'll need to try not to make a mess," Chris said, pointedly reaching down to palm Gauche through his pants. Gauche groaned and his hips jerked against the pressure.

"You and your messes," Gauche said with a breathless laugh. "I guess we could do that again."

Chris hummed in agreement and continued caressing Gauche's chest with one hand and rubbing his other against his crotch. Gauche fingers trembled slightly as he tugged Chris's shirt out of his pants and smoothed a hand across his stomach. Chris bit his lip and shifted under the attention. God, he did _not_ appreciate this enough last time, be it Gauche's hands on him or the tense muscles beneath his fingers. Granted, he hadn't exactly been in the mood then to really appreciate anything other than seeing Faker destroyed…

Gauche knew exactly what he was asking for, but it seemed an eternity before the firm touches on his stomach began moving downward. It seemed another eternity, while Gauche returned his attentions and his pants grew uncomfortably tight, before Gauche finally shifted like the rest of him was about to move down there too.

"Wait—"

Chris tugged on Gauche's arm to get him to stop, and then twirled a finger in the air as he went on, "Better idea. Turn around, so you're facing my legs."

Gauche stared at him for a moment, and broke out into a shaky grin. "_Much_ better idea."

He scrambled to get into the right position. There was a brief moment when Chris was concerned he was about to be kicked in the head, but Gauche settled back on top of him without any complications, his knees on either side of Chris's head and his groin right above his face.

Gauche made quick work of getting into Chris's pants. Chris soon gasped and jerked his hips as Gauche's mouth closed around him. Gauche firmly pressed down on his hips, making it absolutely impossible for him to keep moving them, and enthusiastically—god, was he this enthusiastic last time?—worked his mouth around Chris's cock.

Chris was a bit slow to reciprocate, now matter how enticing the bulge above his face was. What he _really_ wanted was to continue to fondle him through his pants until Gauche was begging him to just get on with it—but the idea here was to keep either of them from having an embarrassing wet spot when they went back to town, and that would certainly not be the way to do it.

Meanwhile, Gauche was making it very difficult to want to focus on anything other than just lying there trying not to squirm. Chris finally reached up to undo his belt and pants and leaned up a bit—

Or tried to, but he couldn't quite get as far off the ground as he wanted before his hair stopped him short. Chris glanced over—his braid lay out next to him, where it wouldn't be an uncomfortable bump under his back, and Gauche had manged to pin it to the ground with his leg when he'd knelt over him.

Chris took in a deep breath—he suddenly felt very hot and _very_ out of breath—and pushed down on Gauche's back so he would lower his hips a bit instead. As he leaned up again, he was still stopped short, but at least now it was only once he was able to take most of him into his mouth. And then Gauche's hips jerked and sunk down even more.

It didn't take long for him to feel like this wasn't the best position to be doing this in, at least not for him. Gauche seemed to be fine, as he worked his tongue in a way that had Chris moaning around his cock (although Chris couldn't guess for the life of him how he was managing to keep hovering over him when his own legs felt like jelly). Chris found that he needed to hang onto Gauche's back to stay close enough, and his cock was pleasantly heavy on his tongue but otherwise felt somewhat awkward compared to last time. Of course, last time had been the first time he'd done this, so he didn't have a whole lot to compare it to.

All too soon, he could feel Gauche trembling as he tried not to just thrust down into his mouth—and just _thinking_ about that tipped Chris over the edge. Moments later, Gauche groaned and his hips did finally jerk down as he came hard down Chris's throat.

Once they had both regained their senses somewhat and weren't panting so much anymore, Gauche rolled over to lay on the ground next to him while he recovered. His hand scrabbled along the ground until it found Chris's, and he held on to it loosely, with his thumb slowly brushing back and forth across his knuckles. They lay like that in silence for quite some time, until Chris wondered if Gauche had fallen asleep.

It wouldn't be so bad to fall asleep out here. The ground was hard and rocky, but the air wasn't too cool and the moon and stars in the sky above them were breathtaking out here beyond the city lights.

He just didn't relish possibly having someone stumble across them in the morning and demand what they were doing there. He really _was_ surprised no one was here to study the ruins yet.

"Chris," Gauche said eventually, nearly startling the life out of him, "you said you guys are keeping an eye on Yuma, right?"

"That's right."

"Will you tell me if he ever needs more help? I tried to get him to let me help while he was here, but he didn't want me to abandon my dream. But I can't just abandon Yuma either…"

Chris smiled and curled his fingers against Gauche's hand. "I'll keep in touch. I'm sure we'll be able to use your help if the Barians heighten their attacks."

"You better not just be saying that," Gauche grumbled.

"I don't intend to disappear again," Chris said. He sat up and grabbed Gauche's coat to hand it back to him. "Shall we go back to the hotel?"

Gauche scrambled to his feet so fast he nearly toppled over again. Chris couldn't even hope to keep an amused smile off his face as he let Gauche help him up as well.


End file.
